Are NDES evidence we live in a simulation?
When you read a good book, or watch a well directed film, or play an immersive game, or take certain drugs, and especially when you dream, your consciousness is momentarily separated from this existence. In the examples of books films or games, your consciousness is being manipulated by creative talent to exist in their created world. In the example of dreams or drugs, your consciousness is involuntarily separated from “reality”.
What if our consciousness is currently actually in a similar created reality, only the creator is of such genius you cannot tell it is not real? If so, is your consciousness itself real or just part of the simulation? These are questions that lie at the heart of simulation theory.
I talk about simulation theory in my book “Did Jesus Die For Nothing?” But at that point in time I would say my thinking was still evolving. I defined simulation theory as something distinct and related to the understanding that we live in a computer or AI generated simulation, but ultimately the creation of an external intelligence of natural origin. This is something many of my Ph.D. colleagues subscribe to once they understand that life and the universe are not possible by natural means. However, and I do allude to it a bit, the fact is that the idea of simulation theory can be applied much more broadly.
I was watching Musk talk about this recently, and he described how simulations are designed to test theories, engineering etc in a safe and consequence-free environment. He used the example of simulating rockets in computers etc. Pilots are tested in simulators. Exams are a form of simulation. In ancient times men would practice fighting with wooden swords. All these are simulations. Some of these simulations are designed to help us learn and prepare for real situations which may be life of death in nature, other simulations are designed to test people or technology to see if they are up to the task. I will come back to these different applications at the end and which I think we live in.
So to the question at the start…are NDEs evidence we live in a simulation? Yes, absolutely they are. If NDEs are real, then the claim that virtually every experiencer makes – that this is not reality, is overwhelming evidence that the life we live is not real. In both my books I talk about this extensively, but don’t really equate that understanding to a simulation, mainly because the word simulation has a modern context that didn’t instantly feel as though it applied. But it does, and even from a Christian perspective, it is accurate.
Back to NDEs. Many people report leaving their bodies and observing their dead bodies and feeling absolutely nothing for those bodies. The pain has gone. The bodies are now anathema. They have become their “real” selves. They are “home”. Conversely when they return they feel that they are being pushed into something unnatural. They are being inserted back into the “simulation” (this is why the Matrix (I) has always been my favourite film…it has always spoken to an underlying truth about existence, albeit in a fictional context…II and III were garbage). During NDEs the experiencers are sometimes told that earth is a “learning” environment or “school”. There, they live outside time, here we are constrained by time.
All this is evidence that we are living in a simulation. As a Christian that makes absolute sense to me since we are told we live in a created environment. The difference though is that rather than being a school, the Christian teaching is that the simulation is a test. Again, I do talk about this in my book focusing on Christianity and the purpose of the test.
As I have thought about this more and more a new (and obvious) revelation has come to me, and one that answers one of the greatest questions about God…one of the biggest objections to [Christian] God is:
IF GOD IS GOOD, AND IN NDES WE LEARN HE IS GOOD, THEN WHY DOES HE ALLOW SUFFERING?
Answer:
The suffering isn’t real.
The suffering feels real while in the simulation, but from an observer outside it is not real just like in a film. This is something that NDE experiencers immediately observe about the suffering they had experienced in the instant before leaving their bodies. It is not of consequence.
However, provided that our consciousness is indeed real, and not itself a part of the simulation (something we cannot ever prove or disprove), not everything about the simulation is without consequence. I believe that the response to the suffering or whatever circumstance you face, is the true reality…it is the output from the simulation, the information about your consciousness that the test, or designer of the test, was seeking to learn.
Two people faced with precisely the same circumstances will react differently to those circumstances. The circumstances aren’t real, the CONSCIOUS response is, and the consequences, or information about the nature of that consciousness, are real to.
I look forward to your thoughts on this.
Lastly, WordPress and my service provider have been sending me bills, and while I can afford to pay them, I like to feel that what I do here is valued. Some have already paid this year, if you haven’t then please go to buy me a coffee and make a contribution, or buy one of my books and if you like it leave a favourable review (min 4 stars which is regarded as average)
